First Tundra Swans for the Season

For me, anyway. But we had to travel to see them...

Tundra swans visit our home region occasionally, and we'll typically see a couple of them if we travel south to the Merced National Wildlife Refuge during the winter season. But there are never all that many. It was a bit different during our Christmas traveling. We were headed north in the Great Valley past Sacramento and the tiny town of Williams. We then turned west towards Clear Lake and started looking for Snow or Ross's Geese, as we have seen them often in the flooded rice fields in that vicinity. Indeed, we soon saw geese filling the sky by the thousands, and more white birds in the rice ponds.

The white birds were interspersed with Greater White-fronted Geese, and I realized with a start that these birds were huge. They weren't geese at all, they were Tundra Swans, and there were more than a hundred of them!

There were apparently families, as juveniles were dispersed among the adult birds. Tundra Swans are notable in that they mate for life. They breed in the far north Arctic and migrate south for the winter as do so many others. They find winter shelter in the relatively warm climate of the Great Valley. Flooded rice fields provide much of their food needs.

Seeing these majestic birds was a nice beginning to our journey. We saw a number of other beautiful birds along the way, but there have been few posts these last few weeks because we also, ahem, spent a great deal of time with treasured family members for the holidays. I'll try to get caught up before the new semester starts!